The NetBSD finally includes support for clockport-based expansions, thanks to the new clockport(4) layer and a1k2cp(4) backend driver. Also, as a proof of concept, SilverSurfer clockport-based serial port card is now supported by the MI com(4) driver.
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Over the last few months, many of NetBSD's graphical console drivers have gained the ability to use anti-aliased fonts. This was done mostly as a way to allow relatively easy access to a vast number of fonts, but they also look a lot better than plain monochrome fonts. With the genfb(4) driver this feature is available on almost all supported hardware which supports graphics. Some specialized drivers also support it (such as radeonfb(4), r128fb(4), voodoofb(4), ffb(4) and voyagerfb(4) ) and more are being added over time.

In order to improve overall usability and to give NetBSD a more unified look across different platforms, we are going to use a single default font and colour scheme on all platforms. Since studies prove its superiour readability we are proud to announce that Microsoft has granted permission to use the Comic Sans font in all future NetBSD releases.

For informing our peers about NetBSD, for distributing at a conference or meet-up, or simply as a concise introduction – new NetBSD flyers are now available at http://www.NetBSD.org/gallery/advocacy/. They are made to be printed on A4 paper and folded twice. English and German versions are provided.

At the moment, there are three flyers: "What is NetBSD?" gives an overview about the project and the OS, while "Tips and Tricks for NetBSD newcomers" and "NetBSD for Newcomers – Switching from GNU/Linux" are more aimed at people who already know similar operating systems, particularly GNU/Linux, and want to know more about the differences between these systems and NetBSD.

We are very grateful to Julian Fagir, who provided these flyers to the project.

On behalf of NetBSD developers, I'm happy to announce the availability
of a public beta of NetBSD 6.0, for your testing pleasure.

This beta is substantially feature-complete; there may be some
additional changes to the installer and possibly some additional
hardware support if some is found missing and is easily added, but the
major changes are done. What we need now is for you, the end users, to
test it in your preferred configuration.

The NetBSD fundation started the Xen MP project 8 month ago; the goal
was to add SMP support to NetBSD/Xen domU kernels. This project
has officially completed, and after a few bug fixes in the pmap(9) code
it is now considered stable on both i386 and amd64. NetBSD 6.0 will
ship with option MULTIPROCESSOR enabled by default for Xen domU
kernels.
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On behalf of the NetBSD developers, I am pleased to announce that NetBSD 5.1.2 is now available for download. NetBSD 5.1.2 is the second critical/security update of the NetBSD 5.1 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed critical for security or stability reasons. All users are encouraged to upgrade.

NetBSD 5.1.2 is dedicated to the memory of Yoshihiro Masuda, who passed away in May 2011. He was a spiritual pillar of the BSD community in Japan. Through an impressive number of books and articles on BSD, he gave courage to BSD developers. We remember his passion and deep love for BSD.

The 16th NetBSD hackathon will be run from February 10th to February 12th. Our goal is fixing all the bugs that need fixing to get NetBSD-current ready for the creation of the NetBSD 6.0 release branch.

Everybody that has an interest in NetBSD, from developers, documentation writers, translators, to advanced users are invited to attend. To make sure that NetBSD users get the best possible experience of the new release we would like to fix as many bugs as possible. For a list of bugs and more information look at the Wiki Page please.

If you are able to help us fixing these bugs by supplying patches or testing fixes please consider to participate. We are also in need of people to supply documentation fixes, preferably in the form of patches. Release notes and/or manual pages!

Join us on the IRC channel #netbsd-code on freenode (irc.freenode.net). Just join, have a look around and ask your questions or what work needs to be done.

This weekend (Feb. 4 - 5) FOSDEM, The Free and Open Source Developers European Meeting will be held at the university of Brussels and NetBSD will be present with a booth and there will be NetBSD related talks and presentations in the BSD devroom on sunday.